


The Fallen Master

by MariaAshby64



Series: Kingdom Hearts Needs More Hugs [4]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Battle, Fighting, Gen, Heartless - Freeform, Hugs, Realm of Darkness (Kingdom Hearts), beach, pre KH3 release
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 08:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17618558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MariaAshby64/pseuds/MariaAshby64
Summary: Riku and Mickey search the Realm of Darkness for the missing Keyblade Master, Aqua.But can they find her before it's too late?





	The Fallen Master

**Author's Note:**

> Request from Aebriel and Van1tas on discord. Hope you enjoy! 
> 
>  
> 
> Sorry this took so long. The first draft of this was written a few days before KH3 came out but typing it up and editing took a bit longer than expected. If you compared the word count you'd probably understand.

“Let’s head this way.” The Keyblade wielding mouse gestured down another dismal path. Riku gazed sceptically at the shifting shadows. He didn’t have the King’s keen ability to sense the light of other hearts within the dark.

“Are you sure Mickey?” He asked as he fell into step beside him. The mouse turned up to look at him.

“To be honest, I’m not sure. But I’m sensing a strong disturbance up ahead. It could be Aqua.”

Master Aqua. She was the purpose of their mission. Their Master, Yen Sid, had tracked the faint traces of her life force deep within the Realm of Darkness. When Mickey had explained that Aqua had helped Riku and the others close the door to darkness all those years ago Riku had insisted on going to help her. Between him and Mickey, it was a unanimous decision. Now they were trekking over rugged obsidian terrain. Nothing but the faint pulsing of the glowing rocks to guide them.

“So Mickey…” Riku ducked under a low overhang. “How did you first meet Master Aqua?”

“Aw gosh…” Mickey thought for a moment. “It must have been when I was still an apprentice under Master Yen Sid.”

“As an apprentice huh?”

Riku had actually met an apprentice version of Mickey while traveling the sleeping worlds. For some reason the idea of the small energetic youth running around with a Keyblade amused him.

“So was Master Aqua an apprentice too?” He helped Mickey descend a rather steep drop. The mouse thanked him for the assistance.

“Actually, she was already a Master when I met her. So she’s been a Keyblade Master longer than I have.”

“She must have been pretty wise then.” Riku glance up ahead at another fork in the path.

“Oh Riku,” Mickey spoke up, “Being a Keyblade Master isn’t just about being wise. Besides, Aqua became a Keyblade Master around the same age you did. ”

“Really?” Riku thought about that for a moment. Ever since becoming a Keyblade Master himself he always had this nagging doubt that he didn’t deserve it. Sora didn’t seem to think it was a problem, but then again, that was just his nature.

“What matters is what’s in your heart.” Mickey gave him a reassuring smile. Riku responded with one of his own.

“Thanks.” A thought flicked through his head. Of Aqua living back on the island with them. Becoming keyblade warriors with Riku and his friends. But the idea didn’t stick. He just couldn’t quite picture her.

They reached the break where the path split in two. One route led upwards through some twisting paths of suspended stone. The other, down into a misty pit, dark gravel disappearing into obscurity. Neither looked particularly inviting.

“Which way now?” Riku asked. The path leading upward would be tough to climb. The other looked like an ideal nest for Heartless.

“Hmm…” Mickey focused on the choices before them, “I think I’m picking up something from this direction.” He pointed down the darker path.

Carefully they descended into the mist. It gathered around them eerily muting out all other sound. Even the crunch of the gravel beneath him. It unnerved Riku. It made him feel like something was lurking just beyond the path. Shifting with the shadows.

“So Mickey,” He spoke to distract himself from his rising nerves. The building pressure broke with the silence. “What was Master Aqua like?”

“Well for one,” Mickey glanced up at him. “Tall.”

Riku had to give a little chuckle. He couldn’t imagine the mouse warrior being taller than many people. Mickey laughed along with him and the dark fog didn’t seem so bad.

“But really, while I have no doubt that she was very wise.” he continued after the laughter had settled. He seemed to smile sadly at an old memory. “I’d say even more than she was kind. Always lending a hand. She always believed in her friends even when they got in trouble.”

“Ventus and Terra, right?” Riku was sure those were the names he remembered from their briefing.

“Yes, that’s right.” Mickey nodded. “She went to help them…”

He slowed. Riku adjusted his pace so he didn’t lose him.

“That was when we lost her light in the darkness.” He murmured. “I thought maybe we could help each other, after I found her while looking for the door to darkness…”

He finally stopped. A couple paces behind Riku.

“But we got separated. I never knew what happened to her.” His ears drooped.

“Hey,” Riku knelt down and placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder, “We’re here to help her now right? We’ll find her light again.”

“Gee you’re right.” Mickey wiped his eyes. “Now’s not the time to think of regrets.”

He took the lead again and they strode down the path. The black fog warped around them, sometimes forming lucid shapes in the shadows. Several times Riku summoned his keyblade on instinct. Only then for the image, of what he thought might be a threat, fade away. Once again part of the murky ink around them.

Suddenly out of almost nowhere a strange feeling struck him and he paused in the middle of the path.

“Mickey wait,” he called out to his friends before he walked to far into the fog.

“What is it?” Mickey hopped back to his side.

Riku stared out into distance. He couldn’t quite describe it, but something seemed to draw his attention.

“There’s something this way.” He pointed out into the mist. Micky followed his gaze.

“Are you sure? That’s off the path though?”

Riku frowned for a second, then a thought occurred to him. He closed his eyes, searching out with his heart instead. At first he only could feel the darkness pressing all around them. But then, deep within the shadows, almost unnoticeable, a faint light flickered.

“She’s this way.” Riku strode into the mist.

“You mean Master Aqua?” Mickey almost had to jog to keep up. And while Riku didn’t want to lose his friend within the fog, he was also concerned with how the light kept winking in and out. Sometimes disappearing for so long Riku worried it might have been snuffed out altogether.

“Here.” Riku held out a hand. Mickey smiled gratefully and used it to leap up onto his shoulder. Riku adjusted his arm so the mouse could balance better.

“Can’t you feel it too?” Riku picked up the pace.

Mickey frowned and closed his own eyes as he focused on searching. He opened them and shook his head.

“Sorry Riku.” He sighed. “It seems the mist is blocking my senses. I could feel her heart before we entered, but now it just feels like static.”

“Then how am I able to pick anything up?” Riku wondered if he was leading them into some sort of trap. The ground beneath him changed from clumped rock to fine gravel.

“Maybe, it because of your resistance to the darkness.” The Mickey gave him a reassuring smile. “Way to go Riku!”

Riku returned the look. “Thanks. I hope you’re right.”

Suddenly the black mist surrounding them thinned. Riku found himself stepping into a familiar area. They had walked out onto a beach. The same beach that he and Sora had found themselves stumbling upon, at the end of the world. The black sand ran down to an inky ocean, broken up by craggy rocks that loomed over the landscape. The whole area was dimly lit by a single moon hanging over the water.

“Riku over there!” Mickey gestured to further down the beach. A commotion seemed to be occurring there. The sparks of battle punctuated the dark.

Riku didn’t need any more instruction to get moving. He could already sense that the battle was the source of the light he had felt.

They had found Master Aqua.

Riku took off at a sprint. His shoes kicking up the obsidian sand behind him. The closer they got, the louder the sounds of the battle became. The boom of thunder, the crack of blizzard and fierce sizzle of fire turning heartless to crisp. Soon Riku could hear the commands to those spells being spoken. The only voice in the battle.

Riku vaulted over one last rocky outcrop and landed in the battle. The Heartless covered the beach. Their beady yellow eyes made the night itself come alive. And at the centre of it all stood the person they had been searching for all this time.

Riku wasn’t exactly sure what to expect of Master Aqua before they found her. Turns out she was every ounce of the warrior people held her up to be.  

The figure was awash with the light of magic. It seemed to arc through the air around her. Her spells cut hard through the ranks of Heartless. They fell before her. Some crumbling to ash, others impaled by huge shards of ice. The battlefield was littered by the scars of her power as she shaped the landscape to her own. But no matter how hard she fought the tide of Heartless kept rearing back up at her.

“Come on!” Mickey leapt off his shoulder and cast a Thundaga spell that stunned half the Heartless in the area. Riku followed up the striking them down with a quick dash. The dissolved into nothing. He cast a Blizzaga spell, a great chunk of ice mowed its way through the swarm.

One sprang onto him, digging its claws into his back. He grunted and tried to throw it off but it was weighing him down too much.

Suddenly a projectile slammed into the Heartless behind him. The blast from the impact threw him forward. The weight of the one on his back was thrown from his shoulders. When he righted himself he found the more of the swarm was being bombarded with the blasts. They arced through the sky in an array of coloured streaks. Bursting in a searing light on impact. Glancing around he found the source of it all was Master Aqua. She fired volley after volley as she hung raised over the battle.

Seeing an opening Riku took the opportunity to cut down the distracted Heartless. They fell before his keyblade. But for every one he struck down another rose from shadows.

At one point he lost his footing. He fell down hard. Knocking his jaw. When his eyes focused he saw that the sand beneath him had been frozen. Another flash of light caught his attention and he rolled over to see Master Aqua firing a fearsome fireball. The impact of the blast left a smouldering crater, caked with red hot glass.

Riku couldn’t quite describe it but suddenly there was a shift in battle. A change in tempo. Maybe the Heartless had figured out they were fighting more than one keyblade. Now they began to seek each other. Fall into the sync.

Become one.

“Riku they’re swarming!” Mickey’s voice cried out over the increasing flood of Heartless. “You need to get out of there!”

“Got it!” Riku replied as he fought his way through the tide. It wasn’t that the Heartless were particularly interested in attacking him. Though he did have to strike down a few overzealous ones. But the sheer number of them, all rushing past, bumping and jostling him. Several times he almost lost his footing.

Glancing behind him he saw them massing together. Rising up into a great tower. Slowing spinning as it gained speed. A fierce tornado of claws and crimson eyes.

And Master Aqua was heading right for the core.

“Master Aqua!” Riku called out to her but she did not heed him. Instead charging right into the darkness. He stumbled after her, casting a fireball to clear a path.

“Master Aqua!” He tried again once he was closer. “Master we need to get out of here.”

But she ignored him and summoned a spell he didn’t recognise. Suddenly bright chains burst from her Keyblade. They wrapped around the swarm. Over and over. Confining them all in one constricted lump.

“Now Riku!” Mickey cried out behind. “Attack the swarm. I’ll handle the Heartless here!”

The mouse dove back into the battle. Letting another Thundaga spell light up the beach. Riku focused back on Aqua and the swarm. She had it contained but the strain it was taking on her was evident. She gasped heavily as she tightened the glowing chains. The perspiration dripped from her chin.

Knowing what he had to do Riku planted his feet in the ground and raised his Keyblade. The sand around him shifted as he focused is energy into the earth. Felt the rocks buried there. Slowly they began to rise. With the swirl of his keyblade they began to gravitate towards each other. Fusing together into one large meteorite.

Riku thrust his Keyblade forward with a brutal cry. The spinning ball of death surged towards the Heartless. The impact shattered the chains restraining the swarm and vaporised the core. A bright light engulfed the battlefield. When it cleared the swarm was gone. A few shadows still roamed on the sand but they were dizzy and confused.

Riku caught sight of Aqua kneeling a few paces away from him.

“Master Aqua!” He rushed towards her. “Are you alright?”

He saw the Warrior get to her feet when-

He almost never saw it.

Even when he did, it took his brain far too long to comprehend what was happening. One moment he was approaching Master Aqua. The next, her Keyblade was embedded in his gut.

He was thrown back. His head skidded along the sand. He only just regained his sense in time to block a second incoming strike. Their Keyblades collided. A hard metaling ring echoed across the beach.

Riku tried to speak. To explain to her that he was not an enemy. But all that came out of his throat was a choking gasp. He realised he had been winded in her previous attack. Gritting his teeth he focused on the ground beneath them. The sand shifted, causing Aqua to lose her balance. Riku rolled out from under her and struggled to his feet as he desperately tried to get his diaphragm working. His breath returned slowly.

Aqua had sunken up to her ankles in the sand. She pulled her feet free and eyed him warily. There was a strange light in her gaze. Suddenly it dawned on Riku why Aqua’ light had been flickering. Before he had assumed it was because of the interference of the battle. But now with the enemies mostly dissipated, he could see that was not the case.

Master Aqua’s heart was falling to darkness.

Riku glanced around the beach in a desperate search for Mickey. Before he could call out for him, Aqua attacked again. She charged at him. He dodged it by rolling on the sand.

He needed to keep his distance between them and avoid engaging her. He pumped his legs as he raced across the sand. He had the advantage on this terrain. Those days of racing Sora and Kairi on the beach would not go to waste. After gaining some distance he wheeled around and tried to reason with her again.

“Aqua please!” He panted “We’re here to help you.”

Aqua didn’t reply and instead let out a cry as she fired a Blizzaga spell at him. He countered with one of his own. The clash of magic sent shockwaves down the beach. Aqua’s spell was stronger. The explosion of the shattering ice rained down on him.

He started to run but found that the sand beneath him had been coated in ice from the blast. He slipped and landed on his knee. Hard. A rather painful crack ran up his leg. He couldn’t tell if it was the ice or his kneecap.

Aqua didn’t seem to have this problem. She streaked across the ice, raising her keyblade. Riku barely had time to deflect the blow, just managing to set her off balance.

“Please,” he grunted, struggling to his feet, “We’re friends. You don’t have to fight anymore.”

Aqua scowled at him as she brandished her blade.

“My friends are gone.”

She cast another Blizzaga. This time Riku was way too slow. The spell sent a wave of ice crashing towards him. The great chunks of ice smashed into his legs, pinning him there on the icy sand. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Master Aqua preparing another attack. He wouldn’t be able to free himself from the ice in time. The gears in his mind were turning desperately. There had to be some way to get her to stop. Something to get her to listen.

Her Keyblade was almost upon him.

“Terra! Ventus!”

For a scary moment he thought Aqua was going to ignore his call. But then she halted, just short of taking his head off. She stared at him.

“What?”

“Terra and Ventus,” Riku repeated slowly. “They’re your friends right?”

“How do you know their names!?” she snarled, thrusting her Keyblade under his chin. He could feel its magic sparking against his skin.

“We know how to help them.” He swallowed. “We can wake Ventus up.”

That got her attention. She slowly pulled back. Though the fire never left her eyes.

“Who are you?” She tilted her head. “And why would you help me?”

“His name is Riku.” A voice chirped up from behind him. “And he’s come to help a friend.”

Riku had never been so happy to see that Keyblade-wielding mouse. He let out a sigh of relief that he didn’t realise he had been holding. His arms almost collapsed beneath him. How did Mickey always seem to have the most impeccable timing?

“Mickey!?” Riku and Aqua seemed to speak at the same time.

“Gosh I’m sorry I’m late.” The mouse rubbed the back of his head. “I had to take care of some leftover Heartless.”

Judging what remained of his tattered clothes Riku decided he really couldn’t blame him for being late.

“But,” Aqua stuttered, taking him in, “How are you… are you really here?”

Mickey nodded. “We came to rescue you”

“Rescue me?” Aqua’s voice wavered “But… why would… how could you…”

Her legs finally gave out beneath her. Riku hauled his himself out of the ice and shuffled to her side. She sat there, dazed, mumbling.

“I… I don’t deserve it. Why should I be saved?” She began to shake. “I couldn’t even save my friends.”

“Hey.” Riku placed a hand on her shoulder. Taking the fact his arm didn’t spontaneously combust as a good sign. “I heard you helped my friends and I out a while ago…”

He offered her a small smile.

“I wanted to say thank you.”

Her head rose and she stared at him. “I did?”

“When we closed the Door to Darkness.” Mickey explained.

“The door to darkness…” Aqua’s eyes cleared with a new understanding. She turned back to Mickey. “You said his name was Riku right.”

“Yes.” Both Riku and Mickey nodded.

Aqua looked at Riku again, studying his face. She blinked as if seeing him clearly for the first time. Slowly she reached out and placed her hand in his head. Ruffling his hair lightly.

“You’re all grown up now.”

Riku was about to ask her what she meant when suddenly she hugged him. Her head rested on his shoulder as she pulled him close. Hand still in his hair. She was shaking. At first Riku stiffened but looking over he saw that she had put an arm around Mickey as well. The mouse patted her arm reassuringly. Following his example Riku reciprocated the hug. Placing an arm around he shoulders. It occurred to him just how cold she felt beneath his skin.

They stayed like that for a moment before Aqua pulled away.

“Forgive me.” She wiped her eyes. “I don’t get much company down here. It’s been a while since a friend showed up.”

“I know the feeling.” Riku lips tugged into a sad smile.

“This time we’ll make sure everyone comes back.” Mickey beamed brightly at the both of them.

Aqua nodded, then blinked as if noticing something for the first time.

“Oh Mickey. It seems you’ve lost your shirt again.”

Mickey glanced down to see that his shirt had indeed been reduced to torn fabric.

“Gosh it seems I have.” He rubbed the back of his head again. “I sure hope it doesn’t become a habit.”

Aqua let out a small chuckle. Riku and Mickey joined in. But he noticed her eyes still carried a tired gaze.

“We should get going before more Heartless come.” Riku cast a quick Cure on the whole group. Shifted to his feet and stood. Stretching the kinks out of his muscles. He turned and held out a hand for Aqua.

“Let’s go home.”

Aqua looked up at him and then to his hand. Then she smiled. A real smile. It was almost unnoticeable but if you were to look with your heart, you’d see it. A brighter light within the dark. She took his hand.

“I think it’s about time.”

**Author's Note:**

> I ended up including Mickey a lot more into this than I thought I would. But once I started writing him it felt unfair to leave him out of the hug.
> 
>  
> 
> Not sure if I'll continue the series after this. I have a couple other ideas in my head but I'll have to wait to see how I feel after finishing KH3. If you don't want to miss anything please follow the series and you'll know when I put up the next part.  
> Thanks so much for reading!


End file.
